Author, Playwright, Poet, Adventurer

May 5, 2016

The business end of radio

Well, it’s been an interesting two weeks. I’ve done taped interviews in Seattle, Toledo, and tomorrow will be Minneapolis. Some are better than others. How many times can one say the same thing, only differently, to a different person, without stumbling over himself? It’s a constant struggle. Add to this the fact that I don’t particularly think of myself as worth interviewing, and it becomes a death-spiral.

I stole this from Bangladesh Online Radio.

Mind you, I’ve been in those interviewers’ shoes. I’ve had to come up with something–anything–to talk about for 10 or 15 minutes, in a general attempt to remain relevant in an industry which devours its young. I have scoured over the pre-prepared list of questions, looking for anything which just possibly might interest my audience. These interviews, one hopes, have the distinction of being pre-approved by the interviewers themselves. I never had that option. It was just, “Will, you’re interviewing this guy who wants to sell a book. Not sure what it’s about. Here are the questions. It better be good.”

So, I give the interviews. I try to find something about the area that is relevant to the book, and focus on that aspect. In Seattle it was Trump (yes, you can stretch the subject matter as far as Trump). In Toledo it was just general chit-chat (I couldn’t think of anything pithy beyond what I had already written). In Minneapolis I don’t have a clue. Maybe I’ll focus on the underlying criticisms of organized religion

If you have the good luck to hear me (at 3AM, when there’s nothing else available), I hope that you’ll get a kick out of the interview. Everyone has thus far promised to send me a link to the mp3’s of the interviews, although that has yet to materialize. When/if it does, I will post them on this site. If nothing else, perhaps it will help to publicize venues who are open to fiction authors–that is, venues other than PBS and community-access.